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Home is Where the Track Is

My only steady hobby is racing my RC car. It’s a blast to drive, but I am pretty terrible at it.

Now that I can keep it off the walls (mostly), I am working on laying down consistent laps. I ham having making and significant improvements because I can only make it out to Mike’s one day a week to practice. Couple that with the fact that they’re changing the track layout almost weekly and you’ll undertand my dilemma: I’ve basically plateaued.

Since I am not able to make it to the track as often as I’d like, I’ve decided to try and bring the track to me.

Anyway, the idea behind getting the Mini-Z – besides having another cool toy :) – was to turn laps at home. Sure, it’s not 100% like-for-like with my 1:10 F1 car, but they are both essentially pan cars. Here is a lengthy, but thorough description of what a pan car is, for those who are interested.

Long and short, they should drive similarly. Even if not, I would still be refining my hand-eye coordination, as these Mini-Z’s are pretty quick and nimble.

Now that I had the car, it was time to focus on making a track for my garage – taking into account these key limitations:

RCP

RCP is popular because it has high levels of grip. It also gets cool points for the Lego-like “snapability”, not to mention the rails to keep the cars on the track. RCP is the most professional-looking out of all of these options, hands down.

I passed on RCP for a few reasons, though:

Cost: Professionalism costs :) A typical RCP setup is to buy two of these “Wide L” setups… at $210 a piece retail. I don’t think that includes shipping, either, but I might be wrong. Just seemed wrong to spend ~$500 for a track to drive a $160 car on it.

Space: One Wide L set would be too simplistic of a track, but I didn’t have room to accomodate all of two Wide L’s. So, I’d be paying for track that I couldn’t use.

Grip: Having seen these cars in action at Inside Line Racing, I can say they stick to RCP pretty damned well. That doesn’t fit with my goal of replicating the medium levels of grip found on the ozite at Mikes.

Limited layout options: The shape of RCP tiles is pre-defined. A straight is a straight. All curves are 90 degrees (unless you spend $70-140 for one 45 degree turn). This limits your options on track layouts.

On a side note, the owners at Inside Line Racing are super cool peeps. Definitely stop by if you’re in the South Bay area, even if it is just to watch some laps.

EVA Foam Tiles

The story on EVA tiles was a mixed bag. You had some people saying that they were nearly identical to RCP and others – who also seemed to be higher-skilled drivers, BTW – saying there was a major difference between the two.

In either case, there was a fair amount of prep work that would need to go into the EVA foam in order to get the mold release agent (read: grease) off of the tiles before you could run on them.

EVA didn’t make the cut because:

Cost: Looking around many places on the Internet, the best deal I could find for EVA tiles was in the ballpark of $0.85 per sqft. That’s about 2x the cost of what I ultimately settled on.

Setup/Teardown: I would be looking at 60 or so 2’x2′ pieces that I would have to assemble every time I wanted to drive. Given that I will only have an hour or two here and there, I’d rather spend that precious time driving.

Storage: At 3/8″, we’re talking 7.5 cubic feet (if I’m doing my math right) of tiles to store. Either way, we’re talking a minimum of 2′ in from any of the garage walls, which is quite a bit when you only have about 20′ total width… and you’re trying to fit two cars along with enough space between to actuall get out of the cars.

Limited layout options: Same issue as RCP

Rolled Rubber/Neoprene

These were interesting options, but they ultimately didn’t pan out for a few reasons:

Grip: This would likely be even grippier than RCP. They use something like this in Europe, so there is precedent, but recall that I am trying to approximate carpet-levels of grip.

Cost: Best I could find was about $1/sqft

Durability (maybe imagined): The rolled rubber – at the $1/sqft price point – was chunks of cut rubber, which concerned me about how it would fare being rolled and unrolled

Material width: The widest roll I could find – again, at a reasonable price point – was 6′, but that much more than $1/sqft. I was not keen on having to lay two or three runs of this together and hoping there isn’t a big seam, having to tape them together, etc.

Canvas

I came across a couple of posts where people mentioned using canvas for their track. Honestly, this wouldn’t have occurred to me, but they universally agreed that grip levels were really great.

I passed on canvas because:

Grip: Sounded like the grip was too good

Difficult to lay flat: There would be seams and creases in the material

Durability: On a per sqft basis, the price was similar to my final solution, but I was concerned how well it would hold up over time

Material width: Ultimately, there wasn’t a cost-appropriate setup that would have fit my garage without having to tape multiple sheets together, etc.

Tar Paper

I read many accounts of people using tar paper for Mini Z tracks. The issues here were several, and similar to the other “rolled” options:

Walls/Rails

RCP and (somewhat) EVA foam come with their own rails, which is nice. That said, both are limited in their shape, thus limiting layout options. Besides, they were out of the running due to cost, anyway.

Other posts turned up some good ideas, but here are the ones I passed on:

PVC Pipe

Too expensive

Inflexible (literally, and in options for layout)

Pool Noodles

Same issues as PVC, save flexibility

Much more expensive, unless I found them on clearance or something

Garden Hose with Sand

Some people said they used garden hose with sand inside, just to give the hose weight and some “positionability.”

“Final” Product

Ultimately, here is what I settled on:

“Commercial,” low-pile indoor/outdoor carpet

Garden hose, with dowels to keep the hose straight and give them some weight

Carpet

Carpet won out for the following reasons:

Cost: $0.49/sqft, which was about 1/2 the closest other material

Width: Carpet is available in 12′ rolls, which uses almost all of the 13′ available

An Unexpected Discovery

Reading further, it seems that you really need foam tires to run Mini-Zs well – and I don’t have foams at the moment.

Indeed, the rear was pretty squirly with slicks on the carpet. The front seemed planted, but the rear as all over the place – which is the opposite of my experience at Mike’s, where the rear sticks well, but the front pushes if I take a corner too hot.

I noticed that the backside of the carpet was a rough, semi-rubbery surface. Seemed kind of like canvas in a way. So, on a whim, I flipped the carpet and ran on that.

Oddly enough, the grip and handling were pretty similar to my F1 car at Mike’s.

Here’s a picture of the underside of the carpet to show you what it looks like:

It looks fuzzy as all heck, but the car mainly just comes off with dust – which I understand is an issue with RCP, as well.

Garden Hose

I opted for a hose that was not necessarily the cheapest for a few reasons:

Diameter: It seemed that 3/8″ inside diameter hose woudln’t keep the car on the track

Finish: The cheaper hoses had a rubbery finish, which I suspected would have not let the car glance off the “wall”

Color: Vein, but I liked the dark gray over green or tan :)

I ended up getting 100′ of 5/8″ inside diameter hose, as I needed enough for the perimeter (12’x2 + 20’x2 = 64′) as well as making the walls inside the track.

Initially, I thought I could straighten out the hose by bending it opposite to the way it was rolled up. This helped, but it didn’t work that well. It did not take long for the hose to revert back to a curve/circle.

As mentioned above, I was thinking about using sand in the hose to weigh it down, but I feared that would not address the curling issue. So, I opted to get 4′ x 1/2″ dowels to keep te hose straight. The 3/8″ were 2/3 the cost, but they seemed a bit too flimsy for the job, as the hose was pretty robust and didn’t want to be straight :)

Originally, I just planned on using circles of hose at the corners – kind of like the “dots” you’ll see at most on road tracks. But, I found that the dowels can be used not just to make a run of host straight, but you can use them to hook runs of hose together – including the circles of hose. This allows me to make pretty clean, curved corners, like so:

Of course… Duct Tape

The one major gap with my creation is that any free-floating pieces of hose don’t have enough weight to keep from being knocked around. Even those that are hooked together can be moved over time.

For now, my answer to those issues is duct tape. Keeps with the simple setup/teardown criteria and gives it that DIY feel :)

Here’s a pic of the end result. Again, this is just one of an endless possibility of layouts.

Future Plans

The main thing I need now is a timing solution. I tried using Easy Lap Counter. It actually worked pretty well, but it unfortunately (and oddly) doesn’t announce the lap times.

Knowing immedialtely how a lap went is the best feedback tool to know what you’re doing right – and wrong. Not having that really diminishes the value of this setup.

7 thoughts on “Home is Where the Track Is”

So this carpet you used.. the Viking Color Stingray from Home Depot… is it close to Ozite? I’ve never raced on, felt or even seen Ozite in person so I have no idea what it looks like. I’m currently planning on building a track myself for my mini-z’s. I was going to use rubber rolls from Home Depot https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.2-feet-x5-feet-3mm-rubber-mat.1000805054.html. The surface looked perfect as its a rough ‘concrete road’ looking rubber and it looks nice. But You mentioned that rubber was ‘too grippy’? Would that be the case? Isn’t it best to have the most grip possible? I’m not quite sure as I’ve never raced on carpet or indoor tracks before. I would assume that turning on carpets would be slippery.. or is it good to have a little slip? I’d appreciate some advice.. feedback. thanks!

Ozite is a really low-pile, low “movement” (for lack of a better term) carpet. It’s alot like most industrial or peel-and-stick carpets… but not really :) It doesn’t shift as the cars move around on it, plus it is much less likely to get wrapped around axles, etc.

That said, this stuff I got ended up being just OK. It wasn’t really grippy enough and I had alot better luck flipping it over and using the backside of the carpet, which was rougher. It had much better traction, at the cost of creating a ton of dust that got all over the cars.

The comment about straight up rubber being too grippy is that you need some sliding in the corners, else the car will “traction roll.” Basically, the outside tire(s) grip so well that they bite into the track and the momentum of the car ends up flipping the car over. Not the best example, but here’s what I am talking about:

Now, putting all of that aside, I’ve been meaning to write a follow-up post, because I managed to find someone local who was giving away a large set of RCP 30cm track. Having run on that, I’ll tell you that there’s simply no comparison. If you’re at all serious about racing, I’d recommend to pony up for a proper RCP track. It’s a completely better experience not just from a drivability standpoint, but also from a track layout standpoint.

The Mini-96 is definitely a good starter kit, though it is a bit tight if you’re not a seasoned driver. But, if you get good on a tight track, a 50cm track will feel huge.

The Mini-96 is roughly 11.75′ x 7.8′. I’ll admit it’s a bit spendy, but to get something similar using your rubber mats, you’re talking about $80 to start… and that’s without any kind of railing. I promise it’ll be worth the extra ~$100 to just get a proper track. I spent more time messing with getting a viable rail setup than I did actually racing when I was doing the carpet thing.

Thanks for your help. I now understand why the rubber would be too grippy. Thats too bad because the carpet search is so hard.

I was originally going to buy the Mini-96 but I don’t like how you are limited to the type of layout/design and I feel there is wasted space. Cost is not the issue as its about $250 CAD where I am and I’m willing to spend what it takes.

But the reason, why I’m skipping on the Mini-96 is that I would love to create a replica of this track:

As you can see, their lanes vary in size depending on where they are. Closely analyzing the video and I’ve come to the conclusion that some of the wider lanes are about 45mm wide and some of the smaller lanes are about 25-30mm wide. I love the raised part as well as it creates more track in the same space.

Building a replica of this track will not be hard. The hardest part is trying to find the carpet! LOL.

The last picture on the page shows a close up of the carpet. is that ozite?

One more thing. You mentioned Kyosho told you they used Shaw “Putting Green” carpet from Lowe’s. I’ve searched the web on Lowes as well as the Shaw Carpets website and have not had luck finding any links to it.

Do you by any chance have any links for it? Did you look into it or find what they were talking about?

Can’t really tell if that’s Ozite just by the picture. It looks very similar to typical “commercial” carpet.

Regarding the Shaw carpet, I did look for it, but never found any. They just told me in an email. Here is the full text of that email:

OK, I asked around and the manufacture of the carpet is SHAW (http://shawfloors.com/carpet), here is the problem they have discontinued this carpet. The name is Putting Green (black color), I’m sure if you go into any legitimate carpet store I’m sure there are still rolls of that stuff out there.

On the track width, the RCP tracks come in 30cm and 50cm sizes, with 50cm being what I’ve seen at most shops that run races. Tracks will be (at least) 2 tiles wide, so you’re talking 100cm – width of the rails. Guessing that 45cm would be really right. Can’t imagine its as narrow as 25-30cm, but perhaps that’s possible.